Why Would I Fast? (with video)

Sermon Video

https://youtu.be/D_RH92qiLtY



He was able to get 17 clothespins clipped to his face in one minute and he raised his hands in victory!  The closest second place finisher was only able to get 10 clothespins clipped to his face and he hung his head in acknowledgement of sad defeat.  

It was around hour 16 of our fast and we had moved into the time frame of “dumb games to distract us from how incredibly hungry we are part of the event”  We were participating in our fourth year of the World Vision 30 Hour Famine, a nation wide event that usually takes place in February where teens abstain from food together for 30 hours while learning about poverty issues across the globe.  Believe it or not, it was a wildly popular event and we always had a huge group of kids lining up to go without food for more than a day.  We proudly donned our orange t-shirts the day of the event and then boldly wore them wherever we went.  Generally the trip to the bowling alley on a Friday night during the fast was the hardest.  The smells of pizza and cheese fries floating through the air, the lure of snickers bars from the vending machine, the pitchers of coke that sat on the tables right next to us, just out of our reach and therefore even more of a temptation.   All the while, we would moan and cry out in despair, bragging to anyone who would listen that we were doing the 30 hour famine and that we were raising money for world poverty and hunger.  Continuing through the night on comfy couches, watching movies and playing games we all eagerly awaited our 6 AM break-fast when we would gorge ourselves with pizza and soda and donuts… I joyfully ate so many krispy kreme donuts.  

Eager parents who weren’t sure the fast was good for their kids waited by the door with their children’s favorite snacks to be sure their teens were still alive after such a daunting task.  The kids raced out with smiles and stories of joy, all the while puffed up and 

proud of themselves for their accomplishment.  

Going without so that others might have more is indeed a noble gesture and an important lesson for all of us.  

But what if we choose to go without, not for a reward at the end, not for a large pile of donuts, not so that at the end of lent we can eat chocolate again or go back to facebook, but what if we choose to go without because we believe  that we might just be able to listen a little bit more closely to the voice of God when are lives aren’t fully saturated.  Maybe God is more present in the moments when we have less? 

Let us pray. 

Fasting is an ancient spiritual practice.  It isn’t as popular as prayer, self examination or even sabbath.  In fact, while most of you know that you ought to take a day off here and there and there are few people arguably in the world who have not prayed in some format or some moment of desperation, I have found very few people who have had experience in spiritual fasting.  

If you sit and think about it, all of these practices that we haven been studying are truly counter cultural.  They go against everything we are taught and everything we have been enculterated to do in our world.  We are surrounded by the big gulp, the baconator, the super walmart and the venti caramel latte, but when the bible calls us to abstain, to order nothing, to leave the stove off, the microwave empty and the dishes in the cabinet, even for one meal, we are alarmed and perhaps, even begin to panic.  

Our minds and our defiant spirits rise up… but we have to eat!!

It can’t possibly be healthy!

No friends, it is not healthy to abstain from eating for long periods of time, but how much more tragic is it to abstain from the lord?  

The hunger pains that come from some period without food, the groans that echo out from our stomachs are the body’s way of saying, feed me.  But the heartache that we feel so often, the uneasiness that we carry, the doubts, the fears, the anxieties.  These are the spiritual hunger pains that we push down, push away or silence with the sustenance of worldly pleasures.  

Biblical and spiritual fasting is a way to take a period of time to notice.  

Brian Wasnick, professor of Marketing and Economics at Cornell noted that we make 221 food decisions every single day.  

We make decisions on when to eat, how much to eat, whether to have seconds, whether we are eating well, whether we will ever eat this item again, whether anyone is watching us eat, whether people will think we eat too much or eat too little.  These decisions don’t even include the incredible amount of decision making that one trip to the grocery store encompasses for our food choices.  

If for one day, or even one meal, those decisions were absent, there would be 221 opportunities to return your heart to the lord and attend to the spiritual hunger in your life that yearns to be fed.  

Our sacred text is clear that fasting was a discipline that was a regular part of both Judaic and Christian tradition

We know that Moses fasted for forty days before he received the ten commandments, 

we know that Elijah fasted while escaping  Queen Jezebel

Ezra fasted while mourning over the sin of the people

The people of Ninevah fasted  after Jonah’s release from the belly of the whale

Esther fasted for the safety of the Jews

Daniel fasted for an answer to prayer

Jesus fasted while being tempted by Satan

Paul fasted after his conversion

Barnabas and Paul fasted as they began their missionary work.

The book of Joel which is primarily read during the season of Lent calls the people to return to the Lord with fasting.  In the historical context, the land where Joel lived had been plagued with locusts.

Millions of locusts had invaded their land, eaten their crops, the text likens it to the invasion of an army.   The locust attack meant that the people and the animals had no food to eat.  The historical commentaries note that the bark had literally been stripped from the trees, leaving them as if they were bones swaying in the wind.  

For the people in Joel’s day, the locusts were terrifying not only because of what they did to their land, but also because the people knew that God had sent locusts as a judgement in the past and they felt that God was sending them a message about their lives.  

Perhaps we can be certain that there are not plagues of locusts attacking us,  I mean, stink bugs maybe, and mosquitos will be back soon and deer ticks for sure, but do we really see those bugs as threatening to our very lives?

Joel calls the people to repent and turn to the lord in the face of the plague of locusts because he felt strongly that their behavior had strayed so far from God’s instruction that complete de-struction might be the only thing to get them to pay attention.  

And so in order to attempt, to try to get their lives back on track Joel boldly calls to them, Even now, return to the lord with fasting.  

Fasting in the book of Joel was a practice that the people of God aligned themselves with in order to focus on God and in order to listen for God’s voice in the midst of difficulty.  

Even now.

Even now.

Even now the prophet Joel calls out to the people of God and says, return your heart to me with fasting.  

So why would I fast?

Because I want to return my life to the Lord.  

In March of 2003, President George W. Bush announced the beginning of the war in Iraq.  A call went out to some clergy groups I was a part of to fast and pray.  The request was to keep a simple fast every Friday for one year, unless the conflict ended sooner.     A fast of only bread and water at lunch was the request and to lift up all who would be involved in the conflict in our prayers.  It wasn’t a partisan fast.  It was a fast of awareness that there is great conflict in our global world, our nation, and even in our personal lives.  The fast was a call to listen for words of peace for our souls and for God’s healing for the nations.  The fast was to pray for those in combat, those caught in the crossfire, the innocents, those tasked with incredibly difficult decisions and ultimately for God’s will to be done.  

What I noticed on all of those Fridays was how much I paid attention.  When I would meet someone for lunch, my focus was different. When I would plan for my day, my planning was different.  When I would sit at my desk staring at a simple roll or a glass of water, I remembered.  My mind was drawn back into a mode of prayer and out of a routine of whims and pleasures.  I was able to engage in respectful conversations with people if they asked about my fast and I was able to hear different view points.  

So Why would I fast?

I would fast to set aside time to be intentional about prayer for our leaders, national leaders, international leaders, local leaders and church leaders.  

I think when we initially hear the call to fast we are drawn to the aspect of what we might have to go without.  How we might feel suddenly as if we don’t have enough, that we are missing out, that we are lacking in some way.  

But my hope for all of us is that we can attempt to move into a mindset where we can be drawn to the notion that in fasting we can gain so much more than we go without.  The biblical fasting economic equation is not that we end up with less, but that by surrendering our lives to God even for a short time, we end up with more.  

We can gain intentionality, instead of casual and quick decision making, we can firmly say, this is what I choose for this day.

We can gain accountability, instead of feeling that we are going through life alone, we can firmly say, I am choosing this discipline with my fellow believers who are feeling the same things I am feeling at this moment.  

We can gain clarity, instead of feeling like the world is full of gray hues of ambiguity, we can set aside time to listen for God’s voice.  

Why would I fast?

So that I can securely claim the blessings of God’s ways an know that they are added in to my life, making it richer and fuller.  

You’ll notice in your bulletin that there is entire page dedicated to fasting.  My hope for you is that you will join Sandy, Kristen, Valerie and I this Wednesday in setting the day aside for fasting.  

It is a fast of your choice.  

You can choose to abstain from all food and drink for the entire day.

You can choose to abstain from lunch.

You can choose to abstain from sundown Tuesday to sundown Wednesday

If you have food or dietary needs that prevent you from fasting, you can choose a different fast.   Perhaps you choose to fast from television for the day.  We discussed how this fasting might look in our home and our friend Caitlyn, a 23 year old who lives with us, decided to leave her phone home for the day to remove temptations she might have to break her fast from technology.  She felt that a day without food would be easier for her than a day without her phone and so she is choosing to set aside the day to fast from what she sees as her greatest distraction from the Lord.  

My primary hope for you is that you will make a one day commitment, find someone to hold you accountable, and notice if you find that you are able to pay attention to God’s leading for your life a little bit easier for one day. 

If you are in a season where you simply need to listen to God more, spend the day listening.

If you are in a season where you are in a particularly difficult moment in a relationship, spend the day lifting that relationship before the lord

If you are in a season of wondering what is next, bring that petition to God

If you are in a season of lonliness, invite God to remind you that God walks with you and pay attention to the Holy spirit in your midst.  

I have brought along simple black bracelets for anyone who would like to take one as a reminder of the fast.  If you tie it on your wrist today, you will spend the next two days noticing that the fast is coming.  If you hold it and tie it on Wednesday it will be there for you throughout the day to draw your thoughts back to God.

Sandy and I joked about getting flashy stickers that say in bold letters “Ask me about my fast” but we thought that might go against God’s hopes that we will humbly bow before the lord.  

Here’s what I believe to be true:

That we are called as Christians to live life with intention.

and that God has instructed us to set aside times when we resist the ways of the world so that we can more clearly hear God’s voice.  

The World Vision promo materials for that year’s 30 hour famine highlighted the Guinness Book of World Records person with the most clothes pins clipped to their face at 50 and challenged the teens with the tagline:

you could spend your time trying to beat this guy for the Guinness world record of most clothespins pinned to your face

or you could spend your time ending world hunger.  

For me, the whole clothespin thing seems like a ridiculous thing to focus on; I have no desire to be in the Guinness Book of World records for anything. 

But when I step back and think of how God might viefddt6t6w the things I fill my life with, he might think some of them are pretty ridiculous as well.  

Why would I fast?

To be able to pay better attention to where my focus has been distracted and centered on frivioulos things.  

Years ago I was privileged to be part of a women’s Sunday school class and in the book we were studying there was the image of our spiritual lives in the vein of a metaphor of a tetherball game.  That we often function as the ball, connected to God by a long rope, but so often that rope flies round and round at the farthest point from the pole, sometimes wildly and erratic as if it isn’t even connected.  But sometimes the rope finds it way back to the pole, the center, and wraps itself around the pole so that the ball can be quieted and settled.  

I know that too often our lives are filled with so much that we feel as though we are erratic and flailing.  But remember this, you are eternally connected to source of life, the God of all creation, Jesus the Christ, and by choosing to deny yourself, even for a moment, you and I can join together in heeding the call of the prophet Joel in returning our hearts to the Lord with fasting.  

Offered in worship

Lent 2019

Grace Presbyterian Church

Part of a series:  Spiritual Disciplines